Blazing sunshine welcomed us on arrival first thing in the morning at Valparaiso, quite a change from what we had left behind in Pucon! First job, book ourselves a bus to San Pedro de Atacama for a few days time, always seems slightly strange that the first thing we do on arrival in each place is plan to leave, but hey! Good news, we can get a direct bus (all be it 24hrs long!) not such good news, it leaves a day later than we wanted too. Ah well we shall just have to enjoy an extra day in the sun, I was sure we would cope!
After a short wait outside our hostel for reception to open, we settled into what would be our home for the next few days and were pretty happy with what we saw. Hot showers, breakfast included, use of kitchen and a TV room! (Tho by this point we couldn't really remember how to use one and had no real desire to) Valparaiso is so full of character that we almost forgot that we were in a city as we wandered round it's markets, cerros and beaches over the next few days. I could easily see how the french guys that were in our hostel had intended to stay for a couple of days and had instead spent a couple of weeks there! History merged with the modern, sometimes slightly too much in our opinion, as we walked past the crubbling remains of what must have been some pretty impressive colonial mansions! Highlights of our time here included the historic 'trolley buses', riding the many ascensors (Lucy even got to drive one!) and a boat trip round the harbour to get a better view of how the town rose up onto the many hills surrounding the thin stripe of coast. Not to mention relaxing with coffee, eating the local speciallity (basically chips topped with beef and scrabbled eggs) in a tiny manic little restaurant and getting some English books (the first chance to read something other than the guide book since finishing our books 5 weeks before!) Before we knew it we were sat on the bus ready for an epic journey up to San Pedro with nothing but my patchwork sunburn to remind us of what we had just experienced!
Our 24hr bus ride turned into nearly 27 and so we arrived in the tiny dusty town at nearly 1 in the morning! The perfect time to look for our hostel which describes itself as 'hard to find'. So we set off with another English couple who had kepts us company on the bus following a scrap of a map on the back of a napkin by torchlight! Luckily the people who find the hostel had to find must not be able to read a map because before we knew it we were settled in and looking forward to an early start the next day. Thoughtfully the hostel provided us with cold showers to help wake us up in the morning so now wide awake we headed into town to plan! After consulting many travel agencies we settled down over a late breakfast and a cup of coffee to discuss our next step. An hour later we were heading out the the Luna Valley nearby to get our fix of local tourism before heading off to Bolivia on a Salt flats tour the next morning. The landscapes at the luna valley really were special, the conditions apparently make it so similar to the surface of the moon that apollo astronauts trained here! (Tho I didn't realise the moon was quite so windy!) The tour finished with snacks and a Pisco Sour or two.... the only slight shame was that due to the recent rain we were unable to see the park at sunset which is when it is supposed to be its most spectacular. The evening was spent sat under the stars chatting with the many nations that our hostel represented before tucking in with the final thought that the next night would be spent at nearly 5000m!
